Our Passion

If someone were to ask, “How did Community HOPE get started?” the short answer would be, “We got to know the people we desired to serve.” There was no better solution to the problem of knowing what our neighbors wanted, thought, and needed than to spend time just talking with them. From these relationships came trust, honesty, and partnerships with residents of local, affordable housing communities.

Since the inception of our organization, building one-on-one relationships has been at the core of what we do. Community HOPE was started by a non-profit organization called Hand Up Foundation which laid the ground work for our program by establishing relationships with identified leaders of these housing communities, as well as local churches that were interested in serving their neighbors. Through partnerships that were formed with members of both the communities and local churches, came the idea of providing stronger academic support for children in these neighborhoods. Thus, Hand Up Foundation played a supportive role in helping to identify and start one-on-one, academic after school mentoring programs for two communities, Mayview and the Oaks in the fall of 2001.

While HOSTS has been a wonderful educational tool in community development, our organization felt strongly about serving more than just the students; we desired to serve parents, community members, mentors, and churches in a variety of ways. Thus, in the summer of 2004, we officially changed the name to Community HOPE, desiring to reflect hope, live in hope, and bring hope to all those we serve. We are continuing to develop tools such as mentor training and high school curriculums that exceed the actual HOSTS curriculum to serve our neighbors in a true community setting. We also strive to build partnerships with other community-based organizations that will enable us to continue our vision of “Giving Hope, Serving Communities, and Building Futures.”